Howard Safir

Howard Safir, whose leadership of New York's Police Department was marked by plummeting crime rates but also racial incidents that drew national attention, announced Tuesday he is resigning as commissioner. "I am leaving probably the best job that any human being could have," he told a City Hall news conference with, as usual, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani at his side. "Crime is the lowest it's been in three decades."

Howard Safir, whose leadership of New York's Police Department was marked by plummeting crime rates but also racial incidents that drew national attention, announced Tuesday he is resigning as commissioner. "I am leaving probably the best job that any human being could have," he told a City Hall news conference with, as usual, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani at his side. "Crime is the lowest it's been in three decades."

New York City's police union voted no-confidence in the city's police commissioner, who has come under fire for actions rank-and-file officers say would get them in trouble--such as using detectives to chauffeur guests at his daughter's wedding. Police Commissioner Howard Safir is also under attack for taking a trip to the Oscars, courtesy of a Revlon executive, and other actions.

New York Police Commissioner Howard Safir, a close ally of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, will resign today, police sources say. Safir, a former fire commissioner, came to the high-profile job in April 1996. He and Giuliani presided over a dramatic drop in crime but have been criticized for strong-arm police tactics, especially against minorities.

A corporate helicopter with four people aboard crashed into the East River off midtown Manhattan seconds after takeoff Tuesday, killing one person and critically injuring at least one other, authorities said. "It appears the tail rotor came off, for whatever reason," Police Commissioner Howard Safir said. Police did not identify the victims, but said the chopper was owned by the Colgate-Palmolive Co. and was on its way to White Plains after dropping off two passengers from Piscataway, N.J.

A teenager killed by police after he allegedly threatened officers with a machete was shot in the back, Police Commissioner Howard Safir said. Safir and Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert Morgenthau promised a full investigation into the shooting early Sunday of 16-year-old Kevin Cedeno by Officer Anthony Pellegrini.

Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said. Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in eastern North Dakota. Fearful of an armed standoff, he called in reinforcements from the state Highway Patrol, a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad, ambulances and deputy sheriffs from three other counties.

Police answering a complaint about an illegally parked car Wednesday recaptured Bernard Welch, the master burglar who escaped three months ago from a prison where he was serving a sentence for murdering a prominent Washington cardiologist. Welch, 45, of Great Falls, Va., was turned over to federal custody Wednesday afternoon and taken back to the U.S. penitentiary at Marion, Ill., Howard Safir, assistant director for operations of the U.S. Marshals Service, said in Washington, D.C.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani tapped New York City's fire commissioner Thursday to run the Police Department. He succeeds Commissioner William Bratton, who is leaving after months of mounting tensions with City Hall. Fire Commissioner Howard Safir, 53, is an old and trusted friend of the mayor's. He is a Bronx native who began his career in 1965 as an undercover federal narcotics agent. He eventually served as deputy director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir outlined a controversial plan to take DNA samples from every person arrested in the city and create a database to speed the ability of police to solve crimes, identify repeat offenders and save costs. "We're not going to use it for anything other than identification," Safir said. "The innocents have nothing to fear. Only if you are guilty should you worry about DNA testing."

The city's former police commissioner, Howard Safir, is still protected by a taxpayer-funded security detail, officials said Sunday. Safir quit as police commissioner in August to take a job with a private law enforcement company. His successor, Bernard Kerik, confirmed in a statement that Safir is provided with security but did not specify the size of the detail.